Missouri is struggling with teacher shortages. In its public schools, which serve nearly 900,000 students, shortages have typically been concentrated in urban and rural areas, and in content areas of special education, math, and science. Recently, however, shortages have begun broadly impacting more schools in more parts of the state and more…

This article brings together a number of key issues that emerge in research around the problem of teacher shortages in hard-to-staff schools. It offers a broad overview of the hard-to-staff schooling sector as discussed in recent academic literature and provides a context-specific overview of the literature around workforce shortages in…

Background/Context: School districts across the United States face persistent difficulties recruiting and retaining teachers (García & Weiss, 2019; Schmitt & deCourcy, 2022). Over the last decade, every state in the south has faced a growing teacher shortage, with some facing shortages in all grades and subjects (U.S. Department of…

Teacher attrition is endemic in education, creating teacher quantity and quality gaps across schools that are often stratified by region and racialized nuance (Cowan et al., 2016; Scafidi et al., 2017). This reality is starkly reflected in South Carolina. Not too long ago, on May 1, 2019, a sea of approximately 10,000 people, dressed in red,…

The critical shortage of foreign language teachers in the United States is well documented, and it was recently reported by ACTFL (2017) to be the worst on record. Exacerbating this shortage is declining enrollment in foreign language teacher training programs that serve as a pipeline to the profession. Even more troublesome, in response to…

The need to address teacher pipeline challenges has never been more urgent--and doing so will require bold, systemic changes to how teachers are recruited, prepared, compensated, supported, and respected. Teacher Preparation Partnerships are one promising strategy to help address the state's significant teacher pipeline challenges through…

This study examines and compares the recruitment, employment, and retention of minority and nonminority school teachers over the past quarter century. The objective of the study is to empirically ground the debate over minority teacher shortages. The data analyzed are from the National Center for Education Statistics' nationally representative…

This brief summarizes the results from a study of the recruitment, employment, and retention of minority k-12 teachers. The study examines the extent and sources of the minority teacher shortage--the low proportion of minority teachers in comparison to the increasing numbers of minority students in the school system. Using the National Center for…

Many school districts in the United States are facing severe teacher shortages (Bordonaro, 2017; Palmer, 2017; Seattle Pacific University, 2017; Whaley, 2017). In several states--including Idaho--the difficulty of hiring qualified candidates has expanded beyond historical high-need content areas such as special education and mathematics to include…

This editorial briefly explores issues in special education focusing on: teacher shortages; use of alternative certification; the need for teaching candidates to have knowledge of teaching strategies, classroom management, course planning, and student evaluation; and the need to offer support and guidance to beginning teachers. (JDD)

This report presents an overview of teacher supply and demand in the state of Maryland. Section I provides a description of the national debate about teacher shortages and raises the question of where imbalances in the supply and demand for teachers exist and how they may be rectified. In section II, the general purposes of the study are presented…

This report discusses findings on the shortage of qualified teachers for students with disabilities. Data from the 1990-91 Schools and Staffing Survey and the 1992 Teacher Followup Survey of the National Center for Education Statistics, along with annual data reported by the Office of Special Education Programs and other data collected by the…

In considering the problem of raising the professional stature of the teaching profession, a review is presented of current statistics on: (1) shortages of mathematics and science teachers; (2) declining enrollment in teacher education programs; (3) widening gap in supply and demand for teachers; (4) current and future shortages of teachers; (5)…

Using data from the Census and the Department of Education, this study compares 1970, 1980, and 1990 to analyze shortages of Asian American teachers by U.S. geographic location, Asian nationality, gender, grade level, and immigration status. Causes of shortages are linked to traditional patterns of teacher recruitment. (SLD)

Examines the demographic forces fueling the teacher shortage in public elementary and secondary schools, the trend toward state adoption of teacher-performance standards, and federal-policy trends in teacher education and licensing. Argues that because of the decline in tenure-track positions in higher education, doctorate-holders might be an…